PSPP NEWS -- history of user-visible changes.
-Time-stamp: <2005-03-07 22:30:34 blp>
+Time-stamp: <2006-05-06 13:24:08 blp>
Copyright (C) 1996-9, 2000 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
See the end for copying conditions.
Please send PSPP bug reports to bug-gnu-pspp@gnu.org.
+
+Changes since 0.4.2:
+
+ The PROCESS IF command, which was deprecated, has been removed. You
+ may replace any usage of it by SELECT IF following TEMPORARY, which
+ has the same effect.
\f
-Preliminary list of changes from 0.3.0 to 0.3.1:
+Changes since 0.4.0 to 0.4.1:
+
+ Added support for very long string variables > 255 bytes.
+
+ Output changes:
- New build dependencies:
+ * Output configuration options have changed. Please refer to the
+ manual for a full description of the available options.
- * The GNU Scientific Library (libgsl), version 1.6 or later.
+ In consequence, you will need to reinstall your "devices" file.
+ "make install" will do this for you.
- * The GNU multiprecision arithmetic library (libgmp).
+ * The PostScript driver now obtains font metrics from AFM files,
+ instead of Groff-format metrics files. It can now embed
+ PostScript fonts in its output.
- * libplot from GNU plotutils is optional; without it, the new
- graphing features will not work.
+ In consequence, you will need to install an AFM file for each
+ font used in PostScript output. "make install" will install AFM
+ files for the standard PostScript files, including the ones that
+ the PostScript driver uses by default.
Newly implemented commands and statistical features:
- * DATE (as a stub, to enhance compatibility).
+ * CLOSE FILE HANDLE (a PSPP extension; see below).
+
+ * REGRESSION.
+
+ * XEXPORT (a PSPP extension).
+
+ New PSPP extension:
+
+ A new PSPP extension called "scratch files" has been implemented.
+ A scratch file, like a system file, consists of a dictionary and
+ any number of cases. Small scratch files are stored in memory;
+ one that grows too large is written to disk. By default, any file
+ handle whose name begins with # is assumed to refer to a scratch
+ file.
+
+ Scratch files can be used just about anywhere a system or portable
+ file can be used. Also, portable files are now allowed in most
+ places that system files were allowed in previous PSPP version.
+
+ A new CLOSE FILE HANDLE command allows the storage associated with
+ scratch files to be freed. It also allows file handles to be
+ reassigned to new files.
+
+ For more information on scratch files, refer to the "File Handles"
+ section in the PSPP manual. For specifics of what commands now
+ allow what kinds of files to be specified, refer to the
+ documentation on those particular commands.
+
+ PSPP is now able to start up and run even if it cannot find its
+ configuration files.
+
+Changes from 0.3.0 to 0.4.0:
+
+ Changes in build dependencies:
+
+ * The GNU Scientific Library (libgsl), version 1.6 or later, is
+ now required.
+
+ * libplot from GNU plotutils is optional. Without it, the new
+ graphing features will not work. If you do not have it
+ installed, you must run `configure' with --without-libplot.
- * EXAMINE.
+ * libgmp2 is no longer a dependency.
+
+ Newly implemented commands and statistical features:
+
+ * EXAMINE, including its graphing features.
* FREQUENCIES now supports percentiles.
* PERMISSIONS.
- * T-TEST.
+ * SHOW.
+
+ * SORT CASES now sorts stably, that is, two cases with equal sort
+ criteria will be in the same relative order before and after the
+ sort.
+
+ * T-TEST (re-written).
+
+ * DATE and USE. These commands are parsed but otherwise ignored,
+ to enhance compatibility with certain command files that invoke
+ them unnecessarily.
+
+ * VARIABLE WIDTH, VARIABLE ALIGNMENT, and VARIABLE LEVEL. These
+ currently have no effect on PSPP output, but their values are
+ written to and read from system files and thus may affect
+ third-party software.
+
+ * SET EPOCH implemented.
- * USE (as a stub, to enhance compatibility).
+ * DATA LIST FREE and DATA LIST LIST now support arbitrary field
+ delimiters.
+
+ * FILE HANDLE now supports custom tab widths.
+
+ Long variable names (and other identifiers) are now supported. Up
+ to the first 64 bytes of each identifier is significant. PSPP now
+ reads and writes system files compatible with SPSS version 12.
New --algorithm and --syntax command line options allow
SPSS-compatible or enhanced modes to be selected.
significantly improved. Refer to the manual for details.
Calculation of moments (mean, standard deviation, kurtosis,
- skewness) has been rewritten and should now be more accurate.
+ skewness) has been rewritten and should now be more accurate. In
+ --algorithm=enhanced mode moments may be more accurate than SPSS in
+ some cases.
Numerous bugs have been fixed, too many to mention here. Many new
tests have been added, leading to the discovery and fixing of many
of these bugs.
- ASCII driver can now squeeze multiple blank lines into single blank
- lines.
+ The ASCII output driver can now squeeze multiple blank lines into
+ single blank lines.
Much of the code has been rewritten and refactored. It is now much
cleaner.
+ The FILE TYPE and REPEATING DATA commands have been disabled for
+ this release because their implementations were deemed too buggy to
+ be useful. They will be fixed and replaced in a future release.
+
+ New pspp-mode for Emacs (in pspp-mode.el).
+
+ Added rudimentary command-line completion for interactive input.
+
+ lib/julcal and lib/dcdflib are no longer used, so they have been
+ removed.
+
For developers, the build system now requires Autoconf 2.58 and
Automake 1.7. The included gettext has been updated to version
0.12.1.
+ Some reports state that Texinfo 4.8, the latest version, may be
+ necessary to successfully format the documentation on some systems.
+
Version 0.3.0 changes since 0.2.3:
Bugs fixed:
projects / pspp-builds.git / blobdiff